I've had to think up a way to survive : on trauma, persistence, and Dolly Parton Cover Image

I've had to think up a way to survive : on trauma, persistence, and Dolly Parton / Lynn Melnick.

ISBN: 9781954118478
ISBN: 9781477322673
ISBN: 1954118473
Physical Description: 266 pages ; 23 cm.
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, 2022.
Copyright: &copy;2022

I have had to think up a way to survive. (other title)

Summary:

"When everything fell apart for Lynn Melnick, she spent the money from her NYPL fellowship on a trip to Dollywood with her family. Melnick's trauma began long before 2018, but events of that year forced her to relive portions of it--abortions, drug abuse, rape--even as she was confronting new pain in the loss of close friends and family. Dolly Parton's music had been a balm and a source of inspiration for decades, and so the trip to Dollywood was "a personal reckoning with my traumatic, often violent past...the culmination of a difficult year that left me wanting to get to the bottom of just what it is I love and need to say about Dolly." Each chapter of this book explores some aspect of Melnick's life through the lens of one of Parton's songs. Melnick is a mother, wife, daughter, survivor, poet; this manuscript has her examining sex, sex work, religion, jealousy, class, nostalgia, aging, illness, motherhood, addiction, abortion, and art, among other topics that can be illuminated in a discussion and appreciation of Dolly's music and life"-- Provided by publisher.